The Master - Colm Toibin

I have not read anything by Colm Toibin before this, but I shall certainly now read his previous work.

This is a novel, although it is about the life and work of Henry James. I am not sure how biographically accurate it is, but Toibin does a wonderful job in relating James's life to his novels. His writing is so spare and manages to convey so much meaning without being too graphic. He almost hints at how James must have felt and acted. In fact I think he writes about James almost as James himself writes - so cool, observing and suggesting and almost allowing the story to happen. He allows the reader to form an opinion from what is written. I think he has done a brilliant job in making us sympathise and care about James, who from this account was not the nicest person.

It took a little time to really 'get into' this book, but then I found it absorbing and it did make me want to read much more of the works of Henry James.

I am afraid the subject matter did not appeal despite it being full of beautifully crafted observations of late 19th upper middle class society in the major European capitals as evidenced by the author Henry James on the American equivalent of the Great Tour. It is like James to effect.